The question stem is worded super weird but basically yeah I think it's asking you which hypothesis (that M could argue for) is countered by Q's response?

Stem: Q's response serves to counter any use by M of the evidence about 85-90 year olds in support of which one of the following hypotheses?

Basically: Q's response counters any use by M supporting which hypothesis?

I'm sorry in advance if my explanation leads to more confusion but I'm trying to leave my thoughts on more comments so I can understand the questions that confused me.

I got #8 right but I flagged it and then got it wrong during blind.

Passage: The reference in the stimulus is saying that the debate is based on"familiar opposition"that "enjoyable novels are lowbrow (which means not highly intellectual/cultured) and that it should be a tiny bit dull". (so Im thinking something easy to follow, something like a Dr. Suess book, as opposed to like Shakespeare- extreme examples I know)

Stem: First of all, these quotes aren't derived from the passage- so who's saying them? I just assumed it to be an outside speaker, since we can't pin point it on anyone from the passage. You can pretend you're the one saying each AC. & the objective is to see which AC (if you said it) matches the attitude given by the reference in the passage. Try to think of it kind of like a principle question in LR? or Point of Agreement?

A. fantasy and whimsy isn't the same thing as dull/lowbrow

B. highly humorous collection of tales? you can eliminate b for the same reason as A

D. "I wouldn't want to challenge the opinions of millions of readers" lol wat I don't even know what they're trying to get at here, what are the opinions being challenged?

E. a novel only needs to meet its requirements to be a true work of literature

The reason E is wrong is because "only needing to meet the requirements to be a novel" doesn't necessarily = "dull/lowbrow".

1. What if I (or whoever is meant to be speaking these quotes) believe that the requirements of a novel is to be highbrow. So if a novel meets the requirements of being highbrow, is that the same thing as saying it's lowbrow or dull? No lol. Since we don't know that whoever is saying the quotes in the answer choices already agrees with the reference, we can't assume what the "requirements" are.

2. (this was more of an inference on my part, its not supported so I could be wrong)

"only needs to meet its requirements"- if you think about what this means in terms of PD James.. I'm pretty sure she did meet the requirements? Her critics had more of an issue with her being extra and including distracting elements. The author even says that she's being "constrained" by her genre. So her work was just extra af- she was overperforming to the point it was annoying. That's not the same as not meeting the requirements (underperforming)

C. a truly great work of literature should place demands upon its readers, rather than divert them

Tbh I didn't think of this AC as a perfect one because when I read "place demands upon its readers" I assumed that meant readers need to really pay attention/actively read the text like how we read LSAT questions.. I think the 7sage explanation explains it pretty good but I just didn't understand it to mean that way when I was doing my section.

But one clue was the rest of the AC says "rather than divert". The word "rather" indicates that they are using "place demands" in an opposite way of "diverting" the reader. I basically read this AC as "a truly great work of literature should not divert readers"- its not exactly the same but its conceptually more similar than E.

@ Thanks so much! I do reread a lot LOL I'll definitely try your methods on top of what was already suggested and thanks I hope you get yours too (:

@-velasquez I had LG-LR-RC-LR and my first LR was significantly harder than my 2nd. I'm really hoping the first one was experimental lol but its so hard to tell because the 2nd one I think I finished on time which I usually don't. My first LR was 25 Q and my 2nd was 26. Idk why but I don't remember the content of the test like at all LOL just the amount of questions and how I was feeling

@ I honestly don't remember anything about my RC passages for some reason except that my last passage was science, comparative and it only had 5 questions. I also remember thinking the questions on that passage wasn't the hardest compared to I think the 3rd passage? LOL I don't know how I don't remember my passage topics but I think it might be because I had RC right after the difficult LR section & I was probably thinking too hard about how I bombed the LR

@ Omg okay I really hope it was lol I just ask cuz I had 2 LR and my shorter LR section (25) was suuuper hard but my 26 question one wasn't too bad. If the 25 Q section is scored I feel like that'd drop my score by like at least 5 points lmao

Thanks @ I'll definitely start trying those! (:

@ @ did you guys have 25 or 26 questions on LR do you remember

Hey I actually watched this one video on Youtube, it takes time to put their tips into practice but I do feel it has helped me a bit. Maybe it might help you too:

If the link doesn't work you can look up "LSAT Lab Inference"

If you need the ruler to make straight lines for your diagrams just use the edges of the scratch paper they give you. They usually give you like 3 or 4 folded pieces of scratch paper

Hi I'm also taking the September test and am interested :)

First time taking the LSAT too. It honestly wasn’t unreasonably hard like I was expecting it to be. The crystal ball said to look out for nuanced language and subtleties so I thought I would be super lost given I haven’t even attempted any of the PTs from the 80s-90s except pt 81 (I studied from pt 1 and went up from there)

But yeah the difficulty of the test isn’t unreasonable. But I also ran out of time !!! ): one section I was so focused on a question that I didn’t even get to guess on the ones I didn’t mark because I lost focus of time. I’m not sure if it’s bc it was my first test but I was definitely suuuuuper nervous and I think that really got to me. Im retaking in November for sure loll😭

Id like to join also

I desperately need help with inference questions too I keep getting them wrong I'm gonna follow this thread

I actually chose E when I was doing this PT too so my explanation could be wrong or confusing but I'll just leave what I think just in case it helps.

I think the reason why E is wrong is because having extreme sensitivity to smell doesn't necessarily exclude the possibility that an animal has navigation abilities. We don't know the extent of their "extreme sensitivity to smell" abilities- so is 300 miles away really "familiar territory"? AC E kind of relies on an assumption too.

I'm not sure where you're from, but to put it into perspective, San Francisco to LA is a bit over 300 miles. That's suuuuuper far.

It could be true that polar bears use their sense of navigation from the starting point (LA for example) and then when they're about 10 miles away from SF (which is still considerably far in terms of how well an animal can smell), they might start to use their extreme smelling abilities. Technically both abilities can exist together- the stimulus doesn't necessarily say that having navigation means polar bears can't use any of their other senses at all- it could be possible that they can navigate AND have extreme sensitivity to smell.

For example, if the stimulus remained the same, imagine AC E was vision instead. Polar bears often rely on 50/20 vision which allows them to see much farther than other animals.

(IDK LOLL Random hypothetical answer)

It doesn't really weaken the conclusion that way right? Because how far can they see? Can they see 300 miles worth?

I'm kind of bad at explaining haha but hope this helps

As for B, the stimulus already states that the polar bear returned to its home territory so its not really making an assumption that the bear returned home